ARTICLES

The Centaur Tractor Company started in the early 1920's as the Central Tractor Company in Greenwich Ohio. In 1928 they changed the name to Centaur Tractor Company. The first tractor was the model A that was a 6 HP sulky tractor with a wide variety of attachments. The model A was refined and improved through several model changes up through the model F. In 1926 the model G was introduced with a 2 cylinder water cooled 10 HP LeRoi engine. This tractor weighed 1220 lbs and it cost $484 . You could ad on an optional belt pulley. Many of these tractors were exported to France to work in the vinyards because of its narrow wheel width.

In 1934 a man named Edgar A. Cross applied for a patent on their new Klear View tractor. The patent was granted in 1936 for the Klear View (KV) which gave the operator a greater view from the seat. The KV has a 133 cubIc inch flat head LeRoi engine that had 22 HP. It is 45 inches tall and weights 2200 lbs. This was an unstyled tractor with flat fenders and no grill, painted gray with red wheals. This model was produced until WW2.

During 1941 - 1945 the Greenwich plant built gear boxes and elevation mechanisms for tank turretsand military truck transmissions.

In 1939 the KV was a styled version with rounded fenders and hood with a rounded grill. The horse power was increased to 26.9 with a LeRoi D140 engine with overhead valves. This tractor was built for farming but many were fitted with a mid mount mowing machine for mowing along state and local highways. These tractors were painted bright yellow instead of gray and red. 200 were also sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad to work on the railroad.

By 1940 the Centaur Tractor Company was in deep debt to their engine suppler LeRoi and the LeRoi company bought Centaur. The LeRoi Company continued to build tractors with the Centaur name until the 1950's with improvements on the engines and manifold lifts.

In 1945 the LeRoi company developed the Centaur Tractair. The tractair had a 4 cylinder engine and 2 compressor cylinders that shared the same crankshaft. There were large air storage tanks mounted on each side of the Tractair between the wheels. The United States and Canadian military bought many of these mobile air compressors. This was the last tractor known to be made.

In September 1954 the Westinghouse Air Brake Company bought the LeRoi Centaur Company. This was the end of the Centaur Tractor.